


An Atypical Form of Perfection

by TheLizardWriter



Category: DuckTales (Cartoon 2017)
Genre: Bonding, Comfort, Family, Fluff, I love them and I just want them to be friends, M/M, New Parents, parenting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-08
Updated: 2019-09-08
Packaged: 2020-11-02 00:30:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,320
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20560481
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheLizardWriter/pseuds/TheLizardWriter
Summary: Della and Drake bond over being not quite the most experienced parents in the world





	An Atypical Form of Perfection

"If you weren't a good mom, do you think Launchpad and I would trust you with our little girl?" Drake rubbed the back of the crying duck in front of him, standing an awkward couple of feet away, practically stretching to the full extent of his arm to reach her. 

"I just… it's… I love them more than anything, but I feel like I barely know them… When Scrooge left, he left me Donald’s list of their favorite foods, bedtimes, allergies, all of that. Just like you do when you drop Gos off with me…" Della shrugged her shoulders, blinking away her tears and staring intently at the ground as if she could find the answers to her problems in the cracks of the pavement should she stare hard enough.

Drake wasn't entirely sure what to say to that. Della might not have been there for her boys growing up, but that didn't make her any less of a mom to them. He wished he could put into words the love he could see in their eyes when they told Gos that their mother was an astronaut. Or when Huey would brag about how she deserved pretty much every single Junior Woodchuck's badge that existed. Or when Dewey would talk about how his mom was going to go down in history as the best adventurer ever. Even Louie had come around to bragging about how his mom could talk her way out of anything. 

But, of course, what came out of Drake's mouth was nothing quite as elegant as that. Instead, he blurted out, "You’re a mom!” He buried his face in his hands. Of  _ course _ she was a mom. That was the entire problem…  _ Great going, Drake, _ he told himself, pushing his hands harder against his face and sighing into them. “What I  _ meant _ was...” Drake struggled to find his words, speaking directly into his hands, which felt more cemented to his face than the time Launchpad and he had accidentally superglued them there during a plane repair… “They look up to you, you know?”

“I look up to them,” she replied, her usual boldness simmered down a little, her shoulders slumping down a little.

“I look up to Gos more than I have words for,” Drake’s thoughts were immediately stolen by how amazing the girl he and Launchpad had finally adopted was. She had gone through so much already, yet she still held onto her confidence, her spirit, her undying love for being a pain in the neck. Drake wished that he could have half as much spunk as his daughter.

“But you and Launchpad… You guys already have the parenting thing down,” Della swung around to face Drake, causing him to take a couple of steps back in surprise, “How do you do it?!” Della’s words hit him like a pound of bricks - it felt like if he didn’t give up his parenting secrets, she’d find a way to force them out. The only problem was…

“We don’t have it down  _ at all _ .” Drake shrugged his shoulders and said, “I would have figured you were doing better than we were. I mean, last night, LP was trying to brush Gos’s hair, and it took us an HOUR to detangle his fingers from her hair and the hairbrush…” Drake took Della’s expression of pure confused amusement as a win - at least she wasn’t crying anymore.

“Yeah, well, last night, Huey and I stayed up until 3 AM playing Legends of LegendQuest… Uncle Scrooge had to come in and tell  _ me _ to go to bed…” Della sighed, running a hand through her hair and straightening out her flight goggles.

“Yeah… Launchpad had to come downstairs a couple of nights ago and tell Gosalyn and I to stop yelling at Wiffle Boy…” Drake wasn’t going to tell Della the real reason they were yelling at it was because Drake kept causing them to lose…

“I guess we’re even,” Della chuckled, but immediately tacked on, “Of course, I can fly my kids around myself, so I’m still beating you!” And there it was - the confidence that Drake was hoping he could pull back out. 

“You know what?” Drake asked, not entirely sure what he was going to follow up with if he was to be completely honest. As per usual, he just blurted things out as he went and hoped for the best. Surprisingly enough, he seemed to fit in in the McDuck household that way…

“What’s that now?” 

“People kept telling me how hard it would be to raise a kid,” Drake’s words came pouring out before he even had a chance to realize what he was saying, “But they never told me how easy it was to let your kid raise you.”

“What now?” Della cocked an eyebrow at Drake, who was furiously shaking his head, on the verge of burying his face in his hands again.

“I just mean… I didn’t have much before her and LP came into my life, and now even the slightest little thing has the greatest meaning if I’m doing it with them,” Drake knew that that time his words at least most likely carried the meaning that he was hoping they did.

“I was always looking for the next great adventure,” Della started, pausing to stare up at the sky, despite the fact that it was the middle of the day, Drake knew what was running through her mind, “But the best adventure yet has been the boys.”

“And you were all they wanted,” Drake smiled at her and added on, “Which just goes to show that you’re the best mom they could ever have. So what if you mess up  _ all _ the time, and so what if you need a little help from Scrooge.” Drake paused, took a second to realize yet again that the words that were coming out of his mouth were not nearly as inspirational as he meant them to be.

He was ready to add a classic Drake mallard addendum to his statement, but instead he was met with, “Yeah, well, even if you and Launchpad are the best parents Gosalyn could ask for, she told me about the fight you got in with her principal, and Dewey said that Launchpad already fell through a window in your new house.”

“I probably deserved--- Wait! Launchpad  _ fell _ through the window!? He said the neighbor kid broke it! I  _ knew _ we didn’t have any neighbors yet!!” Drake stomped his foot on the ground, making a note to bring up that question with his husband, who he knew would fall apart the second his lie was called out. “I guess we are both a couple of hot messes,” Drake smiled at Della, who was clutching at her stomach as she gasped for air through her laughing.

Right when she was composed enough to form a retort, they were interrupted by a call of, “Moooooooom!” As the blue kid ran out of the house. Drake had learned the kid’s names by this point, yet he still couldn’t shake his habit of referring to them solely by color.

“What’s up, Dewdrop?” Della asked, kneeling down on the ground to welcome her son into her arms, jumping up with him and spinning in a circle before giving him even a chance to speak.

“Webby and Gos took our war too far again. Huey sent me to get back up so we could rescue Louie from them!” He immediately grabbed Della’s hand, pulling her towards the house without a second thought.

Drake called out to them, “You’ll never beat my little pumpkin!” He started walking back towards his bike, but he paused to yell one more thing, “I know you’ll take good care of her tonight!” He wasn’t sure that his words carried to the two ducks who were already nearly up to the mansion, but he hoped that the sentiment could carry through.


End file.
